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Hanjo Berressem

Hanjo Berressem teaches American Literature and culture at the University of Cologne. He is the author of Pynchon's Poetics: Interfacing Theory and Text and Lines of Desire: Reading Gombrowicz's Fiction with Lacan . His publications revolve around the fields of American literature, poststructuralism, media studies, and literature and science.

In “…without shame of concern for etymology,” Hanjo Berressem discusses Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge in the context post-9/11 fiction. In contrast to narratives of posttraumatic melancholy, Berressem argues that Bleeding Edge is a “Jeremiad about the fall and the sins of America.” The result is an essay that makes a powerful case for Pynchon as a prophetic, if brutal, witness to American society turning towards security and control in the shadow of tragedy.